A trick-taking skirmish where every card has two faces, and the hexagon of suits decides what's legal to play.
Who it's for
Trick-taking veterans who want a genuinely different suit structure to wrap their heads around, with real strategic bite.
Not for you if…
You want an easy first trick-taking game–the hexagon suit relationships and legal-play restrictions add real complexity for newcomers.
Vibe's take
Tight and increasingly tense–the hexagonal suit relationships take a bit to internalize, but once they click, every trick becomes a small puzzle about what you can legally throw.
Proving Ground drops you into the fantasy world of Zanziar as an orc chieftain competing to place sacred totems at the most favorable spots on shared proving grounds. Its trick-taking deck is built around six suits arranged in a hexagon, where each card carries two values, so adjacent and opposite suits open up legal plays beyond the obvious. Across three rounds, the board gets increasingly restrictive, forcing sharper decisions about which suits to fight for and which to concede.
Get it
Players
Duration
30–45 min
Ages 12+
Complexity
Published
2025